Four of the SA Federation of Trade Unions' [Saftu] top brass — its president Mac Chavalala, second deputy president Thabo Matsose, national treasurer Motshwari Lecogo and deputy general secretary Moleko Phakedi — have been placed on immediate suspension for allegedly embarrassing and bringing the federation into disrepute.

Addressing the media on Sunday, Vusi Ntshangase, the general secretary of Detawu and a Saftu NEC member, said the decision was made during Saftu’s first quarterly national executive committee (NEC) meeting held between March 24 and 26.

The suspensions are pending until the next sitting of the central committee meeting.

A source told TimesLIVE on Saturday that: “The motion passed with 28 votes versus two and 11 abstained. Numsa did not vote because they are not in good standing.”

The Sunday Times previously reported that a bitter falling out between erstwhile labour allies Zwelinzima Vavi and Irvin Jim appeared to be the cause of the ructions in the five-year-old Saftu.

Ntshangase said: “The NEC discussed the recent two weeks of turmoil that engulfed the federation. This followed a decision of the national office bearers of the federation to place the general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi on suspension.”

Ntshangase said every day since this decision, which was “wholly unconstitutional”, the federation had “hogged the headlines for all the wrong reasons”.

He said the NEC had characterised this incident as unfortunate and regrettable.

“A motion was moved to suspend the four NOBs [national office bearers] of Saftu that orchestrated such a suspension. Following further deliberations on the motion and considerations on other alternatives, the matter was put to a vote.”

He said the majority of the NEC members decided to place the four on suspension with immediate effect at Saturday.

“The view of the NEC is that the four comrades wilfully and deliberately usurped the powers of the NEC in suspending the general secretary. In the process they brought the federation into disrepute.”

Ntshangase said for three weeks the four brought the federation into “disrepute and utter embarrassment”.

“The NEC further viewed the suspension as an absolute malicious and mischievous act that failed to portray and smear the Saftu GS as a corrupt individual.”

The NEC described the conduct of the president as “destructive”.

He explained that in terms of the Saftu constitution, the powers to suspend a national office bearer lay exclusively with the NEC.

“In the meeting, the NOBs were given ample time to explain themselves regarding their conduct and the president later apologised for the NOBs as a collective, but the apology lacked an appreciation of the extent which the federation has been embarrassed and had its image damaged by their actions.”

Instead of focusing on the issues affecting the working class, Saftu was forced to face “meaningless leadership squabbles”.

Ntshangase said Numsa was part of the NEC meeting but “unfortunately Numsa was not in good standing, meaning they did not have a constitutional right to move motions or vote, but they had speaking rights”.

He said the NEC ordered the NOBs to seek a legal opinion on how best to deal with the issue of the vacant positions.

“We are not defending comrade Zwelinzima Vavi, we are defending the federation.”

Vavi said he believes there is political interference from outside the federation.

“Saftu is a political animal and entity and every political entity is a contested terrain. Saftu is being contested by external forces, there is no doubt about it. 

“Organisations that are outside the federation seek to influence the federation. They want  the federation to do what they want it to do, in line with their own political ambitions,” said Vavi.

Asked whether he felt vindicated after the “witch-hunt”, Vavi said: “I and the leadership are not rejoicing that four national office bearers have been suspended. We regard this as a very sad chapter.”

“I regret that we find ourselves in this situation and all of us together with members of the NOBs feel that this is perhaps the darkest hour in the federation where we have been defocused on the real issues.”

He would not comment on his relationship with Numsa’s boss Irvin Jim.

TimesLIVE